1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system integrated circuits, and more particularly to a system and method for configuring information handling system integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems are typically built from a plurality of processing components assembled in a housing and interfaced through a main printed circuit board, known as the motherboard, and a number of secondary printed circuit boards, known as daughterboards. A number of the processing components are independent integrated circuits, such as the CPU, while other processing components include integrated circuits to provide intelligence to perform functions, such as microprocessors and microcontrollers in hard disk drives, optical drives, chipsets, network interface cards, bus controllers, graphics cards, memory and displays. Generally, integrated circuits are also known as semiconductor devices because logic functions are performed with circuits fabricated from semiconductor material, such as silicon transistors interfaced with copper wirelines. Typically, the majority of the cost of an integrated circuit arises from the design and fabrication process and not the materials used to make the physical circuits. In other words, the engineering behind the circuit designs and the capital equipment used to build the circuit designs represent the greater portion of the expense of an integrated circuit. For this reason, manufacturers often combine a number of features in a given integrated circuit, even if all of the features are not used or even desired by all end users. Manufacturing costs are reduced for such multi-function integrated circuits since fewer circuit designs and manufacture process designs are needed for producing fewer types of integrated circuits.
One difficulty with the manufacture and sale of multi-function integrated circuits is that purchasers will balk at paying for functions that are not wanted for a particular information handling system. For instance, RAID functionality in a chipset is generally not needed for basic desktop systems but sometimes included as a function so that the same chipset is used in basic and advanced systems. However, integrated circuit manufacturers generally have to charge for all included functions, otherwise a purchaser may order and pay for limited numbers of functions while using additional functions without the knowledge of the integrated circuit manufacturer. To solve this difficulty, single integrated circuit device types are selectively differentiated by disabling or restricting features of speeds based on pricing or the market segment purchasing the device. Differentiation of a single device type is typically accomplished by activating fusing options during the manufacture process. For instance, blowing a fuse built into an integrated circuit has the effect of making the portion of the circuit associated with the fuse inaccessible. Reducing functions by blowing fuses during manufacture also has the advantage of reducing test costs since disabled functions need not be tested. However, differentiating integrated circuits with fusing results in system integrators having to define multiple types of printed circuit boards to accommodate various fusing options, resulting in platform fragmentation and increased end user costs.